ARC Review: Salt by Danielle Ellison

 

************************

 

Author: Danielle Ellison
Pages: 365 pages
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: January 7th, 2014
Received From: the publisher, for an honest review
Status: PDF (ebook), Salt (#1)

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Penelope is a witch, part of a secret society protecting humans from demon attacks. But when she was a child, a demon killed her parents—and stole her magic. Since then, she’s been pretending to be something she’s not, using her sister’s magic to hide her own loss, to prevent being sent away.

When she’s finally given the chance to join the elite demon-hunting force, Penelope thinks that will finally change. With her sister’s help, she can squeeze through the tests and get access to the information she needs to find "her" demon. To take back what was stolen.

Then she meets Carter. He’s cute, smart, and she can borrow his magic, too. He knows her secret—but he also has one of his own.

Suddenly, Penelope’s impossible quest becomes far more complicated. Because Carter’s not telling her everything, and it’s starting to seem like the demons have their own agenda…and they’re far too interested in her

************************

 

Review:

 

This book was totally worth the read! Even from just the synopsis, I knew it was going to be a good book.

 

Penelope is a unique character: she's a witch with no magic, but she can take magic from her immediate family. But when she's out one day, she discovers she can take magic from Carter, a really mysterious witch who declares himself a "demon tracker", the same way she can take it from her family. In her world, if you are unable to do magic, you are deemed as Static, and removed from the witch community. Penelope wants to be an Enforcer so she can find her demon, but as she gets closer to her goal, she realizes that not having any magic is the least of her worries.

 

I liked her as a narrator, and I really do feel sorry for her. She knows she's a witch, even without any magic, but her grandparents do their best to discourage her from becoming an Enforcer to save the rest of them- they go so far, to the point where she is almost married off. But what I liked about Penelope is that she is a total fighter- a total badass- who knows her worth, gets her way, and does her best to protect the ones she loves. She's like a magical version of Rose Hathaway.

 

The story, overall, was really interesting. I found it beautifully executed. It was really good, and while I was reading it, I tried my best to figure out what was going to happen next using the foreshadowing. I found the foreshadowing, but I was completely off when it unfolded later on in the story!

 

When it comes to reading debut novels/the first book of any series, I've kind of fallen into the pattern of getting to know the character, getting to know the world, figuring out what happens next in the plot before it unfolds (sometimes it happens way too early), and get gut-punched every time my OTP fails. But with Salt, Ellison does an amazing job with keeping everything at a good pace, developing the characters (to lead to the next book), throwing me curve balls that I knew I should've gotten right away (but alas, I didn't), and leaving enough loose threads hanging for the next book.

 

This story was such a good read, that I seriously am upset that there isn't a sequel already written. I had a good time reading it, even when I got mad that I got a lot of things wrong (*cough*Carter*cough*).

 

************************

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

************************

ARC Review: Defy by Sara B. Larson

                ***********************

Author: Sara B. Larson

Pages: 337 pages

Release Date: January 7th, 2014

Publisher: Scolastic Press

Recieved From: NetGalley

Status: Ebook, Defy (#1)

 

Synopsis (from Amazon.com):

A lush and gorgeously written debut, packed with action, intrigue, and heart-racing romance.

Alexa Hollen is a fighter. Forced to disguise herself as a boy and serve in the king's army, Alex uses her quick wit and fierce sword-fighting skills to earn a spot on the elite prince's guard. But when a powerful sorcerer sneaks into the palace in the dead of night, even Alex, who is virtually unbeatable, can't prevent him from abducting her, her fellow guard and friend Rylan, and Prince Damian, taking them through the treacherous wilds of the jungle and deep into enemy territory.

The longer Alex is held captive with both Rylan and the prince, the more she realizes that she is not the only one who has been keeping dangerous secrets. And suddenly, after her own secret is revealed, Alex finds herself confronted with two men vying for her heart: the safe and steady Rylan, who has always cared for her, and the dark, intriguing Damian. With hidden foes lurking around every corner, is Alex strong enough to save herself and the kingdom she's sworn to protect?

                ***********************

Review

Firstly, I'd like to thank Sara for making such an amazing book! Defy is everything-and so much more.

Defy is a lovely story about adventure, magic, revolution, love, friendship, family, loyalty, and of course: freedom.

Alex Hollen (born Alexa Hollen), is from Antion with roots from Blevon, the enemy county. She is part of the king's guard, but after a murder, she's left alone with a dangerous secret and even more dangerous enemies. 

Alexa is a narrator I loved from the start, mostly because she could hold her own. When she loses her closest confidant, and is left alone with Rylan and Prince Damian, I started to feel sorry for her. She is tough, she is smart, she is deadly, but when she's left alone with the guys while their captured, she doesn't exactly know who she is. She's lived 3 years as a boy, and doesn't completely remember how to be just her, just an ordinary girl. We see wonderful character development in Alexa that I know will just get better in the second book!

The overall story plot was very interesting, and kept me really interested. For me, I was able to pick up on some of the foreshadowing early on and figured everything out fairly quickly, but nonetheless, everything was plotted beautifully. 

The conflict between the two warring countries was really interesting. The fallout of the war was really dark, and you see a lot of that dark tone throughout the story. I really felt sorry for the kingdom of Antion, I really did. What I loved the most was that the overall plot didn't get out shined by the romance happening between the characters (which, by the way, was a lot). 

The romance was a typical YA romance- a girl stuck between choosing two impossibly (hot) loyal guys who love her. But Alexa is her own person, and I was really happy with the way Sara tied up the romance and all the loose ends (for this book). I was a little upset for a couple of minutes, but if Sara ended the story the way I wanted her to (for the first couple of minutes while I was upset), I would've been more upset.

Sara B. Larson is an amazing author, she keeps her characters in check (for the lack of a better word), and keeps them true to themselves.

This book is DEFINITLY one to look out for in 2014! And I highly recommend this book!

                ***********************

         Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

                ***********************

The Pledge by Kimberly Derting: Review

The Pledge

Author: Kimberly Derting

Pages: 323 pages 

Release Date: November 15, 2011

Status: 1st book in the Pledge trilogy

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed.

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.

I will be honest with you, I never really expected to read this book. Ever. I saw it on a Goodreads newsletter before it's release date and always wanted to read it, but eventually, I forgot about it. 

However, while I was at the library dropping off some books, I just happened to find the Pledge and, well, fall in love with it!

I seriously can't believe it took me two years to read the book when it took me four hours to read it!

The story starts off 81 years in the past where a young Princess Sabara walks into her mother's room- where she is about to die. The dying Queen reminds her daughter that she was born of importance and with power, and that she must say 'the words'. The little princess takes her mother's hand and as she takes her last breathe, says the magic words...then, she becomes her mother. She has taken her Essence, and is now the Queen.

The book then jumps 81 years later where 17 year old Charlie, a girl living in Ludania, a Queendom that divides its social classes by language. Understanding a language outside of one's station results in death. The problem? Our narrator knows all three class type languages: Termani (for the rich), Parshon (for the Vendor/working class), and Englaise (the language of the Serving class and the universal tongue).

After nearly getting sentenced to death when she accidentally slips and looks up from her station when a Termani girl speaks at her parent's restaurant, Charlie joins her best friend Brook to go out for a night. They end up going to a club where she meets his mysterious boy named Max, who speaks a mysterious tongue she magically understands.

Unbeknownst to her, the language is a special one, known by an elite few. She tries her best to stay away from Max and his special tongue- if anyone finds out she can understand him, she'll be dead. Charlie can't keep away though, and she ends up searching for him. While looking for Max, she ends up meeting a man named Xander, who's equally dangerous and charming as Max. 

Back at home, Charlie has to deal with her party best friend, and the tension in her family because of her magic ability to understand languages.

But with a war looming closer to her city's walls, and threatening to force her family apart, Charlie will have to trust someone, but the question is who?

This book is really good! It has a nice plot, and despite my own (little) confusing summary of the story, it actually does a good job explaining the terms and the ins-and-outs of Ludania's backwards society.

In Charlie's world, all the different nations are ruled by 'Queens' which I find interesting, since most times, it's an evil male tyrant who's in power and it's a lost son being hunted and searched. In this book, females are the valuable ones amongst the Royals, and the Queens rule the Queendom with an iron fist. 

I really enjoyed that it was all about the girls and my the guys in this book. I mean, yeah, you still get the handsome guy saves the beautiful girl element in the story, but it ends up with the girl saving the day at the end. Like, how many stories do we have Queens and Princesses at war with each other, with the guys a little bit lower on the food chain? 

What I didn't enjoy was the fact this book was WAAY too small! It has so many nice plot elements and characters that I wish we got to see developed more...but the pages. There were a little over 300 pages. 

I didn't really have much of a connection with the characters like I wanted to. I wanted them to make me feel sad, irritable, jealous, annoyed and happy! But I didn't really get that. I think the reason why is because this book had alternating chapters: there would be Charlie's first person POV, the Queen's third person POV, a bit of Max and a bit of Xander POV as well. We did stay with Charlie the majority of the book, but I didn't really see much of her emotions with the other characters.

I saw that it was evident that she loved her sister, Angelina, and was really concerned about her best friend, Brook, but I didn't really get that passion with her and Max. That was sort of a flop for me. It does get a little better in the end, but not by much.

What this book did was trap me with it's nicely paced plot and just...all the story building and the concept around the 'Essence' thing. I really didn't understand what the whole Essence thing was when I first read the beginning if the book, but as we got closer to the end, I got it and I was utterly amazed and creeped out at the same time. Like, does that mean the person that get's the Essence loses heir personality too? 

Ooh, and the PLOT TWISTS! OMG, Kimberly Derting seriously put some plot twists here!

When I learned that Angelina had the ability to heal was like 'What? Since when?!' That was a good plot twist. Another one was revealing who Max really was. I WAS SO NOT EXPECTING THAT ONE! Another one was Max and Xander's relationship, and how Xander was the favourite. I never thought that they'd be, you know...

Overall, this book was pretty satisfying. The overall concept and plot is really good, so 3 out of 5 stars to this book! I seriously can't wait to get The Essence!

Saturday Spotlight: Paula Stokes

It's Saturday Spotlight! And, if you follow me on twitter, you would probably know that I'm VERY excited about my Saturday Spotlight guest! If you don't, please follow me (@missyallydums97).

So without any further delay, let me introduced to you the awesome, the amazing, and one of my favourite people in the world, Paula Stokes! 

Paula Stokes is a YA author at HarperTeen and RN, and also a total outdoors-y person! She's travelled the world, works constantly, but she took the time out of her busy schedule to talk to me about being Paula, having an alter-ego, and of course, her new book, the Art of Lainey! 
 

See? Isn't the cover so pretty? It's pretty hard for me to imagine that this girl is going to go all Zhou Dynasty on a guy!
 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is used to getting what she wants, and when her boyfriend Jason breaks up with her for no reason, what she wants is to win him back before the start of their senior year. Lainey and her friend Bianca check the interwebz for tips and tricks, but the online dating advice is all pretty lame.

Then the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. Didn't someone once say that love is a battlefield? Jason isn't going to stand a chance once Lainey and Bee go all Zhou Dynasty on him...

Old school strategy and subterfuge meet modern-day dramarama in the story of a girl who sets out to win at all costs and ends up discovering what's really worth fighting for

1) Will you tell everyone a little about yourself? Fun facts, pet peeves? Maybe a favourite cat or two?

Let's see. I'm an author and a registered nurse, though I had to quit nursing when I was trying to manage deadlines and grad school. I really miss working with leukemia/lymphoma patients because they always helped me keep my priorities in check. I'm a big traveler and  can say "thank you" in twelve languages. I have a thing for Cadbury creme eggs and firefighters, not necessarily in that order. (Who are we kidding? Totally in that order). And I have two favourite cats--Taz and Mufasa.

2) You are already a published author of two (soon to be three) amazing YA historical books under a different name. What made you want to branch out and do a contemporary novel?

There wasn't really any branching out. I wrote LAINEY concurrently with VENOM. VENOM just sold on proposal so it came out a lot earlier. I like a lot of different genres. This can be problematic when it comes to author-branding, but one thing I've learned so far is that writing can be a lot of work for little pay. In order for that to be worth it, it helps to write books that you love. That's my #1 piece of advice to writers--write what you love. The research is more fun, the writing is more fun, and when you have fun at your job, it shows in the quality of the end product.

3) Was it hard transitioning from historical to contemporary? Which genre was the most challenging to write?
 

Again, no transition. My very first drawer novel is contemporary so I've always had a feel for that genre. Historical was ten thousand times harder for me to write. I bet I spent two to three times as long researching and checking word derivations than I did actually writing (and still made mistakes). And I had to write like 1000 pages without using the word 'dude'. Or even 'guy!' :-) I don't know how I did it. I suspect amazing editing played a part.

4) What inspired you to write the Art of Lainey? And did you ever go all Zhou Dynasty on a guy before?

The story was inspired by this guy I was seeing that I was 100% crazy about who just kind of vanished out of my life at a time when everything else was going good. Heh, he's thanked in all of the Venom acknowledgments and I talked to him not too long ago and was like "I guess I gotta thank you in this one too since you bailing on me in spectacular fashion is what inspired it." He was like "I'm sorry, P. I'm an ass." He's not, though. Some people just aren't meant for relationships. I can definitely say I have used sneaky and manipulative tactics to win back a guy before. That story did not end well.

 
5) Are Lainey Mitchell, Jayson and Bianca based on anyone in your life? 

A lot of Lainey is based on me--things I've said, things I've wanted to say but never got a chance to. Hilariously, the first round of editors who read the manuscript all hated her and thought she should go die in a fire, so I guess maybe I'm not a very nice person ;-) No worries, though. Lainey has softened up a bunch in revisions. I find her totally complex and endearing. Jason (he lost his Y in revision) is based a little bit on guys I've known. Bianca is based a little bit on a friend of mine, but mostly a fabrication.

6) What do you think readers will like about this novel? And how do you think fans of your alter-ego books will react to this story?

Dude. I have so much love for this book. This story is a romantic comedy so no, it doesn't have a body count or several shocking twists. What it does have is hope and love (but not insta-love!) and amazing human interactions. A lot of the characters are flawed, but they still have these positive relationships with siblings or parents or friends. Add to that some quirky settings, funny dates, and plenty of swoons and that's pretty much LAINEY. I feel like people who like VENOM for the romance will love this book and people who want more of a mystery will love my next book, LIARS, INC. What can I say? I'm a girl who likes to cover all the bases.

7) Will you write any more books under 'Fiona Paul' and revisit the historical world? If not, what can we expect from you as Paula Stokes?

Paper Lantern Lit owns the Fiona Paul name so I have no idea if there will be more books written under that name. I personally have no desire to write more historical books. It was a fun challenge, but my heart gravitates more toward contemporary or futuristic settings. So far everything I've written as Paula has been a bit different from everything else, but you can expect some standalones, male and female MCs, first-person present narration, snappy dialogue, and stories that end on a hopeful note. Maybe not straight happily-ever-afters, but those books where the girl doesn't get the boy and the dog gets run over and the house burns down and the whole world is crushed by a meteor at the end? Yeah, I don't want to write (or read) those books :-)

Another fun thing: I am started a manuscript critiquing service with my friends Tara Kelly, Jessica Spotswood, and Elizabeth Richards. Our website goes live on October 1st and we'll have some giveaways for those of you looking for feedback on your query letters and manuscripts.

So that's it for me & Paula! If you wanna know more about her and the Art of Lainey, checkout the links bellow! And did YOU know that her second book, LIARS, INC is coming out February 2015? HOW cool is that? I'm amazed that she can write so fast O_O I can barely write my English essay.

Paula Stokes, YA Author at HarperTeen

THE ART OF LAINEY (June 2014)

LIARS, INC. (Feb. 2015) 

www.paulastokesbooks.com               

Twitter: @pstokesbooks
Goodreads: Paula Stokes
 

P.S You can win a $25 Gift Card to Powells.com and, oh yeah, the COOL (totally awesome, once in a life time chance, take it while you can moment...sorry, I ramble on when I'm excited) chance to win A ROLE in the ART OF LAINEY at Ensconced in YA's blog! Enter NOW! YOU HAVE 3 DAYS! Contest here :)